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Mon, 12 Mar 2018 17:35:02 +0000enhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.3http://americannewsweb.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-kamcev-32x32.pngAmerican News Webhttp://americannewsweb.info
3232Doing the Work Americans Won’t Do: Illegal Aliens Indicted on Felony Charges After Voting in 2016 Electionhttp://americannewsweb.info/news/americans-illegal-aliens-indicted-felony-charges-voting-2016-election/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/americans-illegal-aliens-indicted-felony-charges-voting-2016-election/#respondMon, 12 Mar 2018 17:35:02 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7393Five Lake County, Illinois ‘residents’ have been indicted on felony charges related to the 2016 general election. Three out of five people indicted are illegal aliens charged with ‘misrepresenting their citizenship’. How could this be? The Democrats say we don’t need voter ID because voter fraud is just a right-wing conspiracy theory. Chicago Tribune reported: The charges against the five local residents began with information uncovered by the Lake County clerk’s office, and then the cases were developed through an investigation by the Lake County state’s attorney’s office. Assistant State’s Attorney...

The charges against the five local residents began with information uncovered by the Lake County clerk’s office, and then the cases were developed through an investigation by the Lake County state’s attorney’s office.

Assistant State’s Attorney Fred Day said the cases all involve alleged crimes stemming from the Nov. 8, 2016 general election, and the lengthy time frame prior to charges included initial discovery of the alleged crimes by the clerk’s office, followed by the need to interview both witnesses and those eventually charged in the cases as part of the investigation.

According to Day and court records, Marcelo Villaruz, of Beach Park, was charged with perjury for allegedly misrepresenting his citizenship prior to voting. His wife, Gina Villaruz, was indicted on the same charges. Both are scheduled to be arraigned March 21, as are the other three defendants.

Yvette Yust, of Waukegan, was also charged with two counts of perjury for misrepresenting citizenship, Day said.

Day said that Janet Pokryfke, of Mundelein, was charged with voting more than once, and perjury for allegedly casting both mail-in and walk-in votes in the general election.

Finally, Marvin Hershman, of Riverwoods, was charged with two counts of voting more than once and one count of perjury, according to Day.

These illegals aliens most likely voted because they listened to Barry Obama.

Criminal Obama assured illegal aliens that nobody would be able to track them down and there would be no repercussions if they voted in the election so they had nothing to worry about.

Obama also told the illegal aliens, “when you vote, you are a citizen yourself and there is not a situation where somehow the voting rolls are transferred over and people start investigating etcetera.”

BREAKING: 5 arrested for election tampering! None of them were Russians. ALL of them were illegal aliens who voted. ALL voted Democrat. https://t.co/dcFhUEJeIp

President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton had this to say about illegal aliens voting in elections:

“Most tend to vote Democrat. It’s a fact,” he continued. “There’s been a study out of Old Dominion University that shows it is enough of a vote to sway elections, one way or another. It may have resulted in election, specifically, of Al Franken to the United States Senate, and all the bad things politically or public policy-wise that happened as a result, like Obamacare and things like that.”

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/news/americans-illegal-aliens-indicted-felony-charges-voting-2016-election/feed/0Jailed Because She’s Conservative= Canadian YouTuber and Activist Lauren Southern Denied Entry, Detained in the UKhttp://americannewsweb.info/news/conservative-canadian-youtuber-activist-lauren-southern-denied-entry-detained-uk/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/conservative-canadian-youtuber-activist-lauren-southern-denied-entry-detained-uk/#respondMon, 12 Mar 2018 17:30:56 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7390Canadian YouTuber and right-wing activist Lauren Southern has been detained in the United Kingdom and has had her phone and passport taken from her. The detention comes on the same day that they released American YouTuber and activist Brittany Pettibone and Austrian activist Martin Sellner after refusing them entry into the nation and detaining them for nearly three days. @Lauren_Southern is currently being detained by UK border police she has told me. They have taken her passport and taken her in for questioning. After the outrage over @Martin_Sellner and @BrittPettibone...

]]>Canadian YouTuber and right-wing activist Lauren Southern has been detained in the United Kingdom and has had her phone and passport taken from her.

The detention comes on the same day that they released American YouTuber and activist Brittany Pettibone and Austrian activist Martin Sellner after refusing them entry into the nation and detaining them for nearly three days.

@Lauren_Southern is currently being detained by UK border police she has told me. They have taken her passport and taken her in for questioning. After the outrage over @Martin_Sellner and @BrittPettibone does the Home Office want to repeat this?

.@Lauren_Southern, on her way to the U.K. by bus, has been singled out by the border police—they took her passport and she’s currently being questioned. I’ll keep you updated on the situation as soon as I learn more.

Southern was travelling to the UK by bus when she was singled out by border police and taken in for questioning. The Gateway Pundit attempted to call her cellphone, but it was immediately sent to voicemail.

Sellner and Pettibone had been detained and denied entry for him planning to give a speech and her plans to interview right-wing journalist and UK citizen Tommy Robinson.

Southern had planned to meet with the duo in the UK prior to their detention.

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/news/conservative-canadian-youtuber-activist-lauren-southern-denied-entry-detained-uk/feed/0Bill Maher Pitches His Rewrite of the Second Amendment: The Right to ‘Apply for the Privilege’http://americannewsweb.info/usa-news/bill-maher-second-amendment-right-privilege/
http://americannewsweb.info/usa-news/bill-maher-second-amendment-right-privilege/#respondSun, 11 Mar 2018 17:33:44 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7386On Saturday’s episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host pitched his own revision of the Second Amendment and said it’s time for Democrats to not be scared of trying to achieve far-fetched ideas. “The Second Amendment is just words humans made up at a certain moment in history when they felt right,” Maher said. “It’s an amendment, not a commandment. “And we could make up new words again. Instead of ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,’ we could change it...

]]>On Saturday’s episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host pitched his own revision of the Second Amendment and said it’s time for Democrats to not be scared of trying to achieve far-fetched ideas.

“The Second Amendment is just words humans made up at a certain moment in history when they felt right,” Maher said. “It’s an amendment, not a commandment.

“And we could make up new words again. Instead of ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,’ we could change it to ‘the right of the people to apply for the privilege of possessing nonmilitary-style weaponry, as long as they’re not batsh*t crazy, shall not be infringed,’” Maher proposed.

“Sorry, Trump, no guns for you,” he added.

He also joked how President Donald Trump has “ruined the phrase ‘thoughts and prayers’ forever” because “America’s finally getting it — prayer doesn’t work because if it did, every drug test would come back clean and there’d be no need for the morning-after pill.”

Schaff also pushed back on Sessions’ speech: “How dare you vilify members of our community by trying to frighten the American public into thinking all undocumented residents are dangerous criminals. How dare you distort the reality about declining violent crime in a diverse sanctuary city like Oakland, California, to advance your racist agenda.”

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/usa-news/kamala-harris-support-behind-dem-mayor-warned-illegal-immigrants-ice/feed/0Former Navy Sailor Pardoned by Trump: ‘All I Ever Wanted to Do Was Serve My Country’http://americannewsweb.info/news/former-navy-sailor-pardoned-trump-wanted-serve-country/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/former-navy-sailor-pardoned-trump-wanted-serve-country/#respondSat, 10 Mar 2018 21:09:06 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7380President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned former U.S. Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, who served a year behind bars for taking photos of classified areas in a nuclear submarine. During his campaign and after he took office, Trump drew attention to the handling of Saucier’s case, describing it as politically motivated and contrasting it with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mismanagement of classified information through a private server. “The president has pardoned Kristian Saucier, a Navy submariner,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a press briefing Friday afternoon. “Mr. Saucier...

During his campaign and after he took office, Trump drew attention to the handling of Saucier’s case, describing it as politically motivated and contrasting it with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mismanagement of classified information through a private server.

“The president has pardoned Kristian Saucier, a Navy submariner,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a press briefing Friday afternoon. “Mr. Saucier was 22 years old at the time of his offenses and has served out his 12-months sentence. He has been recognized by his fellow service members for his dedication, skill and patriotic spirit.”

On “Fox & Friends” Saturday morning, Saucier said he’s very grateful to Trump for giving his family their lives back.

“He’s an amazing man, and this is just one of the many great things that he’s done in his term,” Saucier said.

Saucier revealed that when he learned of the pardon — which means he is no longer a felon and is no longer under house arrest — one of the first things he did was ask for permission to cut off his ankle bracelet.

Host Pete Hegseth said the fact that Saucier asked for permission to remove the bracelet is indicative of how he’s conducted himself with honesty and integrity throughout the ordeal.

Saucier, who served as a machinist’s mate aboard the USS Alexandria and used his cell phone to photograph parts of the submarine’s nuclear propulsion system, has repeatedly recognized that he made a mistake but maintained he meant no harm and only wanted to take photos as mementos.

“All I ever wanted to do was serve my country,” Saucier said. “I honestly believe that the systems that went after me were put in place to protect people like me until I was run through the ringer.”

“And it’s unfortunate because I still love this country. It’s still the greatest country in the world. And I believe President Trump’s taking it back to that place where it needs to be.”

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/news/former-navy-sailor-pardoned-trump-wanted-serve-country/feed/0Trump Pardons Navy Sailor Who Did ‘Nothing’ Compared To Hillaryhttp://americannewsweb.info/news/trump-pardons-sailor-compared-hillary/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/trump-pardons-sailor-compared-hillary/#respondSat, 10 Mar 2018 21:03:53 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7375President Donald Trump pardoned Navy sailor Kristian Saucier who was jailed in October 2016 for taking photos aboard a U.S. nuclear submarine, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced in a Friday press briefing. Saucier was convicted of unauthorized retention of national defense information for holding onto the photos aboard the submarine that show classified technology. Trump repeatedly invoked Saucier’s case as evidence of the alleged wrongdoing of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. Trump frequently criticized Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as...

]]>President Donald Trump pardoned Navy sailor Kristian Saucier who was jailed in October 2016 for taking photos aboard a U.S. nuclear submarine, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced in a Friday press briefing.

Saucier was convicted of unauthorized retention of national defense information for holding onto the photos aboard the submarine that show classified technology. Trump repeatedly invoked Saucier’s case as evidence of the alleged wrongdoing of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

Trump frequently criticized Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. He noted during the campaign that Saucier did “nothing” compared to Clinton.

“They put him in jail. And you see what she does and she’s allowed to run for president. Folks do you know what it tells you? The system is rigged, and I’ve been saying that for a long time,” Trump said, adding “It’s an old submarine, believe me, they have pictures of that submarine that nobody knows about, probably, right?”

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/news/trump-pardons-sailor-compared-hillary/feed/0Obama Wants Back in to Defend His Crumbling Legacyhttp://americannewsweb.info/news/obama-defend-crumbling-legacy/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/obama-defend-crumbling-legacy/#respondSat, 10 Mar 2018 20:58:32 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7371RUSH: This whole program today, folks, I’ve done my best to actually present things here in an order. Now, normally that’s not what happens here. What happens on this program is I do it as I feel it, and that can result in the program sometimes sounding like we’re hopscotching all over the place — one issue here, another issue there, then two minutes later back to the first issue — and you never know what’s coming next because I don’t know. But I’ve tried to stay in order here...

]]>RUSH: This whole program today, folks, I’ve done my best to actually present things here in an order. Now, normally that’s not what happens here. What happens on this program is I do it as I feel it, and that can result in the program sometimes sounding like we’re hopscotching all over the place — one issue here, another issue there, then two minutes later back to the first issue — and you never know what’s coming next because I don’t know. But I’ve tried to stay in order here because all of this is leading somewhere.

We have the news on the tariffs and the overwhelming success of the tariffs in terms of the political side of them. We have the economic news today that is just better than anybody expected it to be: 333,000 new jobs. The labor force participation rate is going in the right direction. More people are working. Wages are up. Some are getting bonuses. Taxes are down. Manufacturing jobs: 200-some-odd-thousand. It’s incredible! The unemployment rate in African-American communities is at practically the lowest it’s been since the 1970s.

I mean, it’s just awesome, great news — in less than a year and a half. Eight years of Obama, they didn’t even try to make this stuff happen. They were telling us it couldn’t, that America’s best days were behind us because America’s best days were really phony. That we really weren’t that rich superpower. That we had come by all of that wealth in dubious ways, and it was time now to square our ledger. And it was time to realize that we’re not exceptional and we’re not special.

We’re just one nation of many in the world and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The Obama administration taking one-sixth of the economy out of the economy, putting it under control of government and ruining it — health care — promising an infrastructure plan to fix roads and bridges? We didn’t do anything but recirculate money back to unions, and telling everybody that, “Well, this is the new reality, and you may not be right to expect to do better than your parents. We all gotta hunker down now!

“We need to come together. We need to help each other. We need to nurture each other. We need to help each other through the tough times.” They even started making excuses for unemployment, calling it fun-employment. It was a great thing! “Reconnect with people, people and family, friends you haven’t seen in years, because now you have time.” So everything the Democrats and the left have been telling us for the last eight years that couldn’t happen ever again, have all happened and then some in a year and a half.

America is being revived. America’s greatness is being revived. American exceptionalism is on parade. Donald Trump has told the climate change people to pound sand. He is working toward building a wall. He’s gonna make a deal on the DACA kids that is gonna hinge on a real strict number, very tiny number of legal immigrants being allowed to come into the country. He hasn’t changed. He hasn’t weakened. He hasn’t vacillated on immigration. He’s still chugging toward building the wall — and this is causing a major panic out there in the Democrat Party and the American left.

I’m asking to you trust me that it’s happening, because the Drive-Bys are never gonna report it as such. But the evidence is everywhere! And the biggest, the most pronounced evidence is that Barack Hussein O and the lovely and gracious Michelle (My Belle) O now want back in. Obama has to be seething! You know, Obama’s ego is pretty big itself. Obama’s self-image pretty damn high, and all this is happening, and Obama isn’t in it.

All this is happening and Obama’s got nothing to say about it. All this is happening, and Obama’s fingerprints are nowhere to be found. All this goodness, all this improvement, all this revitalized consumer confidence. All of this is happening, and Barack Obama is on the sidelines looking in and nobody’s even seeing him. This is not what his post-presidency was gonna be.

His post-presidency was gonna consist of people begging him to come back (sobbing) because of the mess Trump was making. “It was gonna be such a disaster, we we’re gonna hope that Obama would at least do something to help us heal and help us reconnect! It’d be so bad.” Obama was expecting all kinds of attention from all kinds of people asking, imploring him to do something to help us — and instead, Obama is a forgotten guy, except to David Letterman and a couple of others in the Democrat Party.

But on the grand scale, he is a forgotten guy.

He’s not forgotten but on a grand scale, Trump is the news. Trump is driving news cycle. Trump is the biggest attention-getter in the world. Donald Trump is creating more interest and more curiosity than Barack Obama ever did, and it’s eating him alive. So Obama wants back in, and that is why I’m putting this last in all these things are happening, because this is what Trump is actually making happen.

So here’s the headline the New York Times: “Obama in Talks to Provide Shows for Netflix.” And then if you read deeper into this, you find out that Apple may be competing against Netflix for the programming that will be provided by Barack Hussein O and Michelle (My Belle) O. “Former President Barack Obama is in advanced negotiations with Netflix to produce a series of high-profile shows that will provide him a global platform after his departure from the White House, according to people familiar with the discussions.”

What what what what what? Global program? Global…? Global platform? Obama needs a global platform? How did Obama go from the global platform to not having it, and why can’t Obama just go to the U.N.? Oh. I remember! They told us that the U.N. isn’t big enough for Obama. Do you remember? Yes, the Democrats, the media were telling us that actually the presidency was not challenging enough for Obama, that he needed something more, that running America? Yeah, great thing, but it didn’t basically challenge him.

Obama could do that in 10 minutes a day, it was so easy. The United Nations might be a little bit bigger challenge, but even that is beneath the real talents of Barack Obama. They told us all of this. But Obama’s not on the global stage and he’s gonna go to Netflix or Apple. “Under terms of a proposed deal, which is not yet final, Netflix would pay Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, for exclusive content that would be available only on [Netflix].

“The number of episodes and the formats for the shows have not been decided,” ’cause they haven’t the slightest idea yet. Although it says here, “Mr. Obama does not intend to use his Netflix shows to directly respond to President Trump or conservative critics, according to people familiar with discussions about the programming. They said the Obamas had talked about producing shows that highlight inspirational stories.”

Oh, if only Maya Angelou were still here!

“But the Netflix deal, while not a direct answer to Fox News or Breitbart.com, would give Mr. Obama an unfiltered method of communication with the public similar to the audiences he already reaches through social media… In one possible show idea, Mr. Obama could moderate conversations on topics that dominated his presidency — health care…” Oh, yeah. He’s got a lot to go hang his hat on with that. “…voting rights…”

Hey, yeah! Let’s go pop some popcorn and let’s tune in to Obama’s voting rights series starting Friday night. “…immigration, foreign policy,” and, of course, the old standby, “climate change… issues that have continued to divide a polarized American electorate … Another program could feature Mrs. Obama on topics” or her expertise “like nutrition, that she [did] in the White House.”

Like the school lunch program that drove kids to leave school to go grab something to eat ’cause they hated it so much! “It is unclear how much money the Obamas will be paid, given their lack of experience in the media business,” but it could be really, really big. But then, folks, if you read past all of that and you get down to the end of the story, let me read a little paragraph. I got time here.

Obama “has seethed,” meaning he’s really ticked off, folks. Obama “has seethed privately and publicly, about what he says is the manipulation of news by conservative outlets and the fractured delivery of information in the internet age.” That’s the nub of it right there. Obama is tired and fed up of the truth being told about his legacy and his presidency — by me. Conservative outlets?

What do you mean, conservative outlets? We know what he’s talking about here. We’re living rent free in the guy’s head! He’s still, even after being out of office for a year and a half, can’t get over it. Just like Bill Clinton before him. Just Hillary Clinton before her and after her. It’s amazing. Obama’s legacy’s not surviving. It’s crumbling. It’s falling apart. He’s got to do something to put it back together, because conservative outlets are telling the truth about it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. There’s one more here, folks. It’s CNN. It’s from 10 o’clock this morning. He’s the headline: “Obama’s Legacy: He Sparked Hope — and Got Blindsided.” Sparks hope? Oh, yeah, there was all kinds of hope. For what? Hope and change. Economic stagnation. Labor force participation right shrinking. Health care being blown to smithereens and ruined. Giving nuclear arms to Iran! The list goes on and on, and he got blindsided?

Blindsided? What does that mean? Who blindsided Obama? How the hell did…? “During his first year in office, as Republicans spoke about incessant obstruction and refused to join him on legislation…” Oh, he got blindsided ’cause the Republicans didn’t help? In the first two years, Obama didn’t need Republicans. The Republicans didn’t have any votes to stop Obama. They could have controlled guns, they could have done away with the Second Amendment, anything they wanted in the first two years.

Does this thing also, Mr. Snerdley, get down to blaming conservatives for Obama’s plight? (interruption) Ahhhh! This is the key. So he “sparked hope — but got blindsided” by the Tea Party. Yeah, 2010, the Tea Party. Nobody saw it coming. Obama blindsided? He had the whole media apparatus as the state-functioning media, and he got blindsided? Blindsided?

Obama was warning everybody two weeks into his administration in a meeting with congressional leaders. He warned the Republicans to stop listening to me “because that’s not how you get things done in Washington.” Well, how the hell did he get blindsided? I thought he was brilliant. I thought he was five moves ahead of everybody. I thought Obama was so overqualified for this that nobody could have stopped him! Blindsided?

]]>Given the fact that the DNC and the DCCC are hurting for cash, this makes no sense. Why have they recently paid nearly $1 million dollars to Hillary Clinton’s resistance group for supposed list acquisition?

The DNC, which is in the midst of facing financial hardships, conjured up $300,000 on Jan. 8 to pay Onward Together, Clinton’s group, for “list acquisition,” according to the FEC filings. The payment was made to Clinton’s organization as state Democratic parties were waiting on $10 million in funding for rebuilding efforts that was initially promised last July…

The DCCC also paid hundreds of thousands to Clinton’s “resistance” group for “generic committee list rental” between mid-December and late January.

On Dec. 12, the DCCC disbursed $286,689.34 to Onward Together for the list rentals. In January, two more payments were made to Clinton’s group in the amounts of $139,242.20 and $145,882.40 for the rentals.

This does not look right. Hillary isn’t running and other state campaigns could surely use those funds right now for the midterms. Why is all this cash going to Hillary’s group?

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/news/dnc-dccc-pay-nearly-1-million-hillarys-resistance-group/feed/0Kobe Bryant, Accused Rapist, Will Probably Win an Oscarhttp://americannewsweb.info/news/kobe-bryant-rapist-probably-win-an-oscar/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/kobe-bryant-rapist-probably-win-an-oscar/#respondMon, 05 Mar 2018 16:12:48 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7365At the height of the Time’s Up awards season, a man accused of a brutal sexual assault is an Academy Award frontrunner. And his movie, ‘Dear Basketball,’ is terrible. What gives? When you scan the annual Oscars Class Photo featuring this year’s nomineesall gathered and beaming on a set of risers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, your eyes are immediately drawn to the outlier. Right there front-and-center, seated in the front row where, supposedly, his height would be slightly masked: Is that Kobe Bryant!? The retired Laker is, indeed, an Oscar nominee this year,...

]]>At the height of the Time’s Up awards season, a man accused of a brutal sexual assault is an Academy Award frontrunner. And his movie, ‘Dear Basketball,’ is terrible. What gives?

When you scan the annual Oscars Class Photo featuring this year’s nomineesall gathered and beaming on a set of risers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, your eyes are immediately drawn to the outlier. Right there front-and-center, seated in the front row where, supposedly, his height would be slightly masked: Is that Kobe Bryant!?

The retired Laker is, indeed, an Oscar nominee this year, credited as creator, animator, and executive producer of Dear Basketball, which is up for the Best Animated Short trophy. Making what is typically designated as a pee-break category suddenly must-see viewing, Bryant and Dear Basketball are the odds-on favorite to win.

Yes, Kobe Bryant will very likely be an Oscar winner this year.

At the height of the #MeToo movement and the Time’s Up awards season, an NBA star accused of rape will likely win an Academy Award trophy. And he’ll win it for a truly awful animated short at that, proving just how much Hollywood is willing to forgive and forget in the name of celebrity star-fucking and athlete idolatry.

We have to assume this is due to the expectation that Academy members will, in a category in which most voters have little knowledge of the nominees, vote based on name recognition. We have to assume that because this film is really, really bad. Would, all things being equal and fair, anyone possibly vote for this?

Dear Basketball animates a poem that Bryant wrote to announce his final season playing for the Lakers. That sentence is utter lunacy in and of itself, but whoo-ee wait until you hear that poem.

“It is a poem that Kobe Bryant wrote as part of a decade-long image rehab campaign to bury any lingering distaste over his rape case and further commoditize his lucrative NBA goodbye tour.”

If someone was handed this writing with no author attached, you might assume that it was a homework assignment from someone’s sixth grade Language Arts class. Maybe, if you found out that an adult wrote it, you would assume it was for some children’s book.

But, no, it is not. It is a poem that Kobe Bryant wrote as part of a decade-long image rehab campaign to bury any lingering distaste over his rape case and further commoditize his lucrative NBA goodbye tour.

It’s literally a love letter to basketball, chronicling his life-long passion for the sport that he was bidding farewell to. “I knew one thing was real: I fell in love with you,” Bryant narrates, as pencil-sketch animation illustrates memories of him as a child, playing trash-can ball with rolled-up tube socks (Bryant had an upper-middle-class upbringing and is named after Japan’s pricey Kobe beef). “A love so deep I gave you my all, from my mind and body to my spirit and soul.”

It’s five full minutes of nauseating schmaltz, climaxing with this doozy of a passage: “I had played through the sweat and the hurt, not because challenge called me but because you called me. I did everything for you. Because that’s what you do when someone makes you feel as alive as you made me feel. You gave a 6-year-old boy his Laker dream, and I will always love you for it.”

What sort of reaction has the film gotten from critics?

“In my opinion, it is the worst short film I have ever seen nominated for an Academy Award,” wrote Chris O’Falt at Indiewire. Well then. “This piece of hagiography is completely empty of form and substance. It doesn’t belong on the ESPN halftime show of Bryant’s last game, let alone being recognized as one of the five best animated shorts of the year.”

That the dreck has been so warmly embraced by Hollywood is hardly a surprise, he argues. In fact, it’s almost annoying predictable.

“Branded content like Dear Basketball, designed to create a counter-narrative of the great Kobe, is something that has induced eye rolls from sports fans for 13 years—except for those in Los Angeles and especially Hollywood, where good seats to Lakers games are a status symbol,” O’Falt writes.

“It was this powerful and recognizable fanbase—the b-roll cameras for every televised game finding the endless array of celebrities in the crowd—that made what seemed like Bryant’s near-impossible comeback in 2004, following the events in Eagle, Colo., possible.”

The events of Eagle, Colorado, are, of course, the ones underlying the accusation that Bryant had raped a 19-year-old employee of a hotel that he had checked into in advance of knee surgery.

A hotel worker at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera claims that Bryant invited her to his room after a private tour of the property, during which time he kissed her (she says that part was consensual). But when he started to take off his pants and she attempted to leave the room, she says that he started to choke her, grope her, and force her to touch him. With his hand around her neck, she says he bent her over the side of two chairs, lifted up her skirt, and raped her.

There was considerable evidence against Bryant, who was charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment after the encounter, but the case was dismissed just one week before trial because the accuser informed the court that she would not testify.

In exchange for the dismissal of the sexual-assault charges, Bryant’s attorney read an apology in court from Bryant that partially confessed to the incident, but characterized it as an encounter he misunderstood to be consensual: “Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.”

As we all know, Bryant’s career rebounded swiftly, his legacy barely tarnished in the decade that followed. But still, given the prevalence of the #MeToo movement, the optics are pretty pathetic should Bryant win March 4.

We asked awards expert Gregory Ellwood, a writer at The Playlist, about this. “I mean, Kobe’s jersey was retired by the Lakers in a massive ceremony in December smack dab in the most intense period of the #MeToo movement and you barely heard a peep about his sexual assault case,” Ellwood said. “Everyone will simply look the other way.”

Ellwood also gave interesting context behind Bryant’s nomination, which, it turns out, is more nuanced than simply “because he’s Kobe Bryant.” (Though that certainly is a major factor.)

The basketball star managed to wrangle some pretty top-tier talent to work on the film. John Williams scored the short, while legendary animator Glen Keane directed and animated it.

Keane is best known for bringing characters from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin to life, but, as an animator, wasn’t eligible to share in any of the awards glory for those films. Honoring Dear Basketball is an opportunity to reward Keane for a lifetime of achievement.

Keane’s stature in the industry runs in tandem with the desire to exercise a fan-boy vote for Bryant. (It should be noted that only “Dear Basketball” appears on the ballot, not Keane and Bryant’s names—though most voters will put two-and-two together that the short with “basketball” in the title is Bryant’s film.)

“That being said, many members actually take their voting pretty seriously,” Ellwood said. “It’s why you’ve had upsets over the years that surprise pundits, but thrill critics. Most who vote in this category will watch all the shorts and they may be won over by Pixar’s Lou or the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes instead.”

]]>http://americannewsweb.info/news/kobe-bryant-rapist-probably-win-an-oscar/feed/0Oscars: Jimmy Kimmel Says Penis-Free Oscar Statue Is Hollywood’s Ideal Manhttp://americannewsweb.info/news/jimmy-kimmel-penis-oscar-statue-hollywoods-ideal-man/
http://americannewsweb.info/news/jimmy-kimmel-penis-oscar-statue-hollywoods-ideal-man/#respondMon, 05 Mar 2018 16:08:24 +0000http://americannewsweb.info/?p=7362Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel went all in on the #MeToo movement in his opening monologue, saying that if Hollywood can stop harassing women, they “will only have to deal with harassment all the time in every other place they go.” Kimmel also pointed to a massive Oscar statuette on the stage and said he was Hollywood’s perfect man. “Keeps his hands where you can see them, never says a rude word, and, most importantly, no penis at all. He is literally a statue of limitations,” the host joked. “Here’s how...

]]>Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel went all in on the #MeToo movement in his opening monologue, saying that if Hollywood can stop harassing women, they “will only have to deal with harassment all the time in every other place they go.”

Kimmel also pointed to a massive Oscar statuette on the stage and said he was Hollywood’s perfect man.

“Keeps his hands where you can see them, never says a rude word, and, most importantly, no penis at all. He is literally a statue of limitations,” the host joked.

“Here’s how clueless Hollywood is about women: We made a movie called ‘What Women Want’ and it starred Mel Gibson,” Kimmel added.

He pointed to Best Picture nominee “The Shape of Water,” saying it represented “the year men screwed up so baldly women starting dating fish.”

Kimmel also noted that the only person besides Harvey Weinstein to be kicked out of the Academy was someone who shared for-your-consideration screeners of films that circulate among Oscar voters.

He started by joking about last year’s epic mishap, in which “La La Land” was erroneously named Best Picture instead of the actual winner, “Moonlight.” He advised people named as winners: “Don’t get up right away.”

Hosting for the second consecutive year, Kimmel knew going into the ceremony that he would need to walk a careful balance between acknowledging the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements without letting them overshadow the show.

He also had his critics: The Atlantic ran a story heading into Oscar weekend noting the “thoroughly modern irony” that years ago, Kimmel hosted Comedy Central’s “The Man Show.”

“The host who will set the tone for the #MeToo Oscars got his start on a show that gleefully ogled women,” the story noted.

Sunday’s show began with a 1940s newsreel-style opening that included black-and-white footage of this year’s Oscars attendees, accompanied by an old-timer voiceover.